Polycrystalline alumina wafers are commonly found in analytical chemistry and biotechnology laboratories, laser surgical operating rooms and laser surgical instrument reprocessing facilities. They are used for trimming gas chromatography and capillary electrophoresis columns made of both fused silica and glass-lined steel as well as for refreshing the output surfaces of fiber optic energy delivery devices used in laser surgery. Over the past 20-years, we have found them indispensable in our own glass blowing laboratory for snap cutting fused quartz and borosilicate plate and tubing, so we decided to offer them to the public with interesting and fun prints applied to one side (aid in orientation). "Elements of the Periodic Table" Series 1 -- our first educational series -- has now been augmented with whimsical, patriotic and other themes that we have yet to fully compartmentalize, if that is even possible. The printing method is unique; the images are not decals, glazes, inks or paints, but appear to be formed of submicroscopic carbon is trapped in the alumina's crystalline matrix. We have subjected the printed wafers to temperatures exceeding 2000F for hours, soaked them in concentrated acids and saturated lye solution and every organic solvent in the laboratory and no damage was done, not even the slightest fading. It can be scratched, but it takes purposeful effort with a very, very hard blade, made of something like silicon carbide or diamond.
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